1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of local area networks (LANs), and in particular to collision control for CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) based local area networks.
2. Background Art
Devices on a data network speak (communicate) with each other by sending messages over a channel. In some networks, only one device is permitted to speak at one time. If more than one device attempts to speak at the same time, there is a "collision" of the messages, and neither of the attempted communications are accomplished. Currently, rules are implemented on networks to determine when each network device will be permitted to speak so that collisions can be avoided. These rules often turn out to be unfair, and also limit the performance of the network.
To understand how these rules work and why they are unfair, it is first useful to understand a data network.